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Monday, March 31, 2014

I usually like to front-load all my projects and finish with time to spare but I have probably been over scheduling and thus have finished things just in time. Some of these were from orders from my Etsy shop, one was from a quilt along and the last was a goal from my 2014Q1FAL and March ALYoF.

This adorable viking hat (found here) was from a shop order. Isn't it adorable on a baby?

Here it is off a baby. I love the cute little horns and the detail around the bottom.

That completed this order and I got it shipped off. I learned something about Etsy from this order. When you put a processing time on a project they don't add them together when people order more than one. So all of these things were supposed to be finished in five days. It was totally pushing it and they got mailed off on day six. I think that's still pretty good.

Here's another order from my shop. It's a bunny preemie hat for a sweet little baby in the NICU for Easter. I love the idea and it is so cute and tiny! It's about the size of my hand for scale.

A friend ordered this quilt from me for an upcoming granddaughter. The pattern was so fun to make and I love the color combination. It was a fun and gratifying finish.

It measures about 46" square so too big for yardage. I added a green stripe down the middle and did some straight line quilting. I'm loving the look of lines these days.

Here's a bit of a close up of the blocks. This pattern came from the book Simply Fat Quarters and went together really easily. The binding however was a horrible pain!! The timing went out on my machine and it was a nightmare trying to sew it on. I tried to borrow a friend's machine and hers was worse than mine. After several attempts I settled on just going for it with mine in a straight stitch (I usually zigzag my bindings) and it worked out really well. I'm not as good at the straight stitch but I went really slowly and kept telling myself no matter how long it takes it is faster than hand stitching.

This quilt was my March ALYoF goal (post here) and on my list for 2014Q1FAL (goal post). I'm glad I got it done just in the nick of time. Excuse the shadowy picture. It was crazy windy and rainy today and this is the best I could do. Since it's the last day of March I couldn't really wait for better conditions. Hurray for procrastinated finishes!

I did more straight line quilting with this one -- see, addicted. And again I love it! I also used my new Hera marker, also love! It works so well and I love that I don't have to worry about how to get the markings out. There were a few spots, especially on the dark fabric, that were a little tricky to see but I could see enough of it to keep my lines straight.

I adore the back of this quilt! The fabric is so fun and the stripe of snow fabric is fun. My little man is in the upper corner holding it down so I could hurry and take a picture before it blew away again.

These pillows were made as part of the Star Light Star Bright Quilt Along from Happy Quilting. I love how they turned out! I did a bunch of straight lines (obsess much?) in a variegated thread. I accidentally switched some of the block pieces so it is a little different from the original but I still love it.

The back is an envelope type in black. I seriously love them! I've always wanted festive pillows. Halloween may not have been the best choice for this time of year but I love them anyway and I'm going to leave them up for a few days just to enjoy.

Phew that was a lot! Can you believe I finished all of that since Wednesday! That's less than a week! Nothing like last minute deadlines to get the fire under me started. Thanks for stopping by! I'm linking up with Finish it Up Friday and Fabric Frenzy Friday.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

I've been sewing like a crazy person and finishing things up or making good progress on several projects but we were out of town on the days I usually have time to blog. So now I get to do a photo dump and tell you all the awesome things I've been working on for the last two weeks. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.

So this picture comes with a question. The picture in the bottom right was posted with my first quarter FAL goal (post here). I wanted to make my oldest boy some lounge pants with this awesome fabric. Well, as it turns out this remnant that I bought was cut horribly crooked and there wasn't enough. So I made a pillow case out of it then bought some new yardage of fabric to make the pants. So the question is.... should this still count as a finishfor the linkup? I think I'm going to since I used the original fabric and I made a pair of pants. It's like I finished it and a bonus.

Once he got some pants everyone else wanted to join in and get some too. I couldn't resist. Here they are all together.

First off - isn't my munchkin adorable?! I love her modeling skills. These pants are actually a pattern I tested for the lovely Jenilyn over at Grits and Giggles. I don't typically sew clothes but I just love her patterns! They are so simple and well written that even someone uncomfortable with 3D objects, as I am, can make them with ease. I highly recommend these pants. You can find the pattern here.

Here's my little guy in his pants. His obsession with all things orange and firefighters carried over into yet another creation. That two pillowcases, pajamas, a zippy pouch, and two quilts so far.

Here's the last pair. They are covered in adorable sparkle butterflies. The pants were easy to make but the sparkles are a nightmare! They are seriously everywhere. I am not loving but my little girl sure is. She goes to bed knowing she looks good. Can't beat that.

Next up we have a crochet baby cabbage patch hat I made for a friend's baby shower. I adore these hats! They are so cute on too. She asked for it in newborn size and she is going to have her week-old baby wear it in her pictures. I can't wait to see them! If you like the hat you can buy one of your own here.

I had another friend due one day before the last one and she asked for this adorable owl hat for her tiny baby. So cute!! I love the big eyes and the braided tails of this one. You can find it here.

My cousin ordered a few things from my shop for her new little man. This simple hat is one on the list - the others are at a really weird stage for photos so I'll have to show them when they are finished. I love the simplicity of this one and the awesome peacock sparkle yarn!

So two weeks agoI made some stuffed animals for my middle kids. This week we finally got around to making the two for the oldest. They even sewed them up with minimal help from me! I'm so proud of their budding skills! Their animals look so cute and they sure love them.

I saved the best stuff for last! I just love how this top turned out! It just flew together too. I stalled out on this one a couple of weeks ago when a couple of custom orders came in to the shop. It's my March ALYoF goal and on my 2014Q1FAL list so I figured I'd better get back to it and finish it up before the month is over! Now just to baste quilt and bind.

Speaking of custom orders this is one of them! My friend asked me to make this for her upcoming granddaughter. The only direction was lavender and light green. The lavender was pretty easy to find but the light green was another story. There is oddly not much to be had. The greens are all different shades and I hope one of them is the right color. I love the scrappy feel the fabric pull.

I finished the top this morning. While these fabrics were hard to find they are even harder to photograph. The colors never seem to be true to life. My camera has always had a really hard time capturing any type of purple (any help with this would be appreciated) but these greens were a total fail this time to. However, the quilt itself is lovely! I am pretty in love with this pattern. I found it in the Simply Fat Quarters book. It doesn't take very much and goes together quite quickly.

I couldn't resist an artsy one of the top. I really do love how this one came together. I can't wait to get to quilting it, hopefully tomorrow.

So that's everything. Now that spring break is over and I've kicked the strep throat in the butt (for the third time in as many months) I should be back to my normal blogging/sewing schedule and you'd probably won't be blessed with such long and all encompassing posts. As always thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

I have had a fun and productive week this week. I tried some new things, picked up something I hadn't done in a while, finished up a quilt-a-long, and started a new quilt. Phew! I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

First up... the something new. I have never made stuffed animals before but thought, how hard could it be? My kids had been wanting to learn to sew with me and these looked cute and pretty easy so we decided to give it a go. I got this cute furry fabric at Joann's and while it is so soft it is crazy messy to cut and with all the static in the air right now it was like glue. In the process of trying to brush it off it got in my nose and my mouth. Not my finest moment. It was a bit tricky to sew with so the kids got more help from me than I wanted. Maybe we'll try again with some cotton next time.

Now the something I hadn't done in a while... Booties. I am quite prolific at crochet hats but the booties happen less often. I love these with the tie because they are so great at staying on babies wiggly feet! They are available now in my shop.

Another first I participated in my first ever swap. Look at all the fun stuff I got! It was a triple zip pouch swap and we stuffed the pouch with goodies. I especially love the Hera marker. I've been wanting one of those. You can see my pouch here. I didn't get a picture of all the fabulous goodies just in case my partner read my blog. Sad thing is, she hasn't taken or posted a picture either and it's been nearly two weeks. It was filled with great stuff like a Moda candy pack, chocolate, tiny scissors, retractable measuring tape, and fabric scraps. I'd call the experience more or less a success and I'd like to try it again.

These are my block corners for the Star Light Star Bright QAL. I had a ton of fun with this one. I did finish these before the deadline for linking up but was too tired to blog about it last night.

Since I finished all the components and the baby was taking an awesome nap I figured I'd just finish these up. It flew together and I love how it finished up. However, I noticed I did something wrong! The block sides were sewn together backwards. The bit closer to the center of the star was supposed to be switched with the bit closer to the outside. It really changes the look of the block and makes what looked like bats in the corner (the whole inspiration for the Halloween fabric) totally disappear. I like the new way and once finished was really not interested in unpicking it so here we go. No one who sees them will know what the original looked like anyway, right?

Last but not least I cut up all the fabric for my commissioned quilt. I also started sewing them together a bit. I'm loving this one and can totally see more of these in my future!

Well, that's it. I'm really loving how productive I was this week. I hope to get those pillows done quickly and more progress sewing on my commissioned quilt. Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, March 7, 2014

I have been excited to start a few new things this week. One of them is already finished! I also finished one of the quilts I was working on so I could start another one. I'm so happy to share how they turned out.

One of my friends asked me to make some things for an upcoming grandchild. I'm so glad she did! This owl hat is the first finish on the list. I love the colors she chose. If you like it and you like to have your own you can buy it here.

I really love this Spring House quilt that I finished yesterday morning. It's so fun and cheery. This quilt is available in my shop here.

Here's a closeup of the fabric. I am not usually a bright colors kind of girl but I really love these. This is one of my goals for the Q1 2014 FAL (goal post here) so I'm really happy to have it finished!

The snow makes a perfect backdrop for quilt photos. There has to be something great about all this winter, right?

My next quilt will be made out of these fabrics. I am in love! It's another project for my friend who asked for the hat. I am so excited to get started on this one.

To help share my finish I'm linking up with TGIFF. Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

I used to be a monogamous quilter. Meaning I would only work on one quilt at a time from start to finish before I cut into or most of the time even purchased fabric for another quilt. Well, that has certainly changed. Right now I have the fabric for probably 20 quilt tops, three bags, and then there's my stash -- that shouldn't count, right? So now I decided a three thing limit is more reasonable, especially since I've been more involved in quilt alongs and such. You can't just only have one project going when you only have about one block a week, or less.

So, here are my three current things. One of which I hope to finish soon so I can start the next thing I'm all jazzed up about.

This is another Jelly Roll Jam quilt for my shop using the rest of the Spring House roll for Moda. For some odd reason these fabrics are really hard to photograph. I've tried different light and adjusting camera settings and they keep coming up as 80s in a bad way. They are actually quite pretty in person and not this in your face. The quilting is over halfway finished on this one and I hope to get it finished within the next day or two.

This fabric is Sweet Serenade for Moda. It's not my usual style but I'm loving this one. The muted colors are fun and mixing in the black was interesting. This is yet another project for my shop and will end up being the Line Dance quilt found over at Moda Bake Shop. I hope to finish this one later in the month and it is my March goal for ALYoF.

This has been a fun set of projects to be working on and they are all so different. Just this morning my friend offered to pay me to make a quilt for her upcoming granddaughter. I'm so excited to get on that. I think it will help me finish up that jelly roll quilt even faster! Thanks for stopping by.